Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you
Embrace me, you irreplaceable you
Sarnia, Ontario, June, 1993, the Amalfitano home...
“Daddy? Are you okay to…” Leia pointed to the black and white images on the screen that reached back into that terrible day.
“Watch this? Yeah...it’s okay, Leia. I’ve seen this before.” Jackie waved his hand casually toward the TV; a broadcast of the movie, The Longest Day
“I know. But…” Leia turned her attention to the TV. Her father was never one to complain. He came through the fateful day physically unscathed. But like many of his fellow survivors, even the fictional sights and sounds of that day and those following were too familiar life-long companions.
“Really, honey. It’s…it’s always rough, but I can remember the good….”
“The good you and…and she had, Daddy?”
“I… yes, honey. The good we had…” he smiled. What little time they did enjoy was still a treasure to be cherished….
Just one look at you
My heart grew tipsy in me
You and you alone
Bring out the gypsy in me
I love all the many charms about you
Above all, I want my arms about you
Somewhere outside Carpiquet, Normandy, June 6, 1944…
“Hey, Laddie. Keep yer head down,” Ferguson shouted. Jackie looked back at the Sergeant Major before shooting a quick glance at the young Corporal to his right. It felt odd to be protective of a fellow soldier almost two years older than him, but that was less than half of the oddity between them.
“Hey...Da…Hey Corporal? You alright?” Jackie shouted over the sound of the German gunfire.
“Y…yes, P…Private,” Corporal Dale O’Malley yelled back. Happy coincidence or not, the two had reunited after training only days before the operation began. The connection went way beyond schoolmates or Army buddies.
“It’ll be alright…” Jackie looked around and noticed the Sergeant Major on the radio and that everyone had settled down several yards to his left.
“It’ll be alright, babe!” He whisper-shouted, so to speak. Dale prayed to god that his embarrassment-reddened cheeks conveyed only the same fear everyone else felt. Mixing…blending in.
Don't be a naughty baby
Come to mama, come to mama do
My sweet embraceable you
I love all the many charms about you
Above all, I want my arms about you
Jackie took note of everyone else’s distraction to speak a bit louder.
“You look beautiful when you’re shy, Dale!” At that moment, as mud-covered and grimy as Dale O’Malley was; he was still the prettiest girl Jackie had ever known.
Stolen kisses and caresses in the back of the school after everyone had gone home.
And dress-ups for both boys when Jackie’s sister had left for Uni. Jackie in Dale's Dad's Tux and Dale in his sister June's Prom dress...
“Stop!” Dale called out. Jackie nodded reluctantly. Oh well… time for banter later, he supposed.
Just south of Carpiquet a few hours later...
Sergeant Major Ferguson had several of his men hunkered down behind a disabled French Lorry. The shooting seemed to have died down but remained loud and Jackie made a point to speak very carefully out of the earshot of their mates.
“Hey? Dale?” Dale turned away; his…her face still filled with shame.
“Corporal O’Malley? I’m sorry for the way I behaved before. I had no right to be so forward with you.” Dale breathed a sigh of relief until Jackie grabbed his hand.
“I’m sorry I was so forward, but I’m not sorry I…” Jackie struggled to finish the most important sentence he would ever utter. He blinked back tears as he realized how all the teasing he had done to that point got completely in the way of what he had hoped to tell Dale.
“I…I know, Jackie, and I…” Dale’s words were cut short as the abrupt renewal of German gunfire shattered the calm of the moment.
For what seemed like hours; the noise of the mayhem around them left everyone with a renewed sense of fear. But as abruptly as the chaos began it ceased; almost soundless other than the rustle of leaves and thicket nearby.
“We…we can talk later…” Jackie looked around and saw his mates slowing and cautiously stepping out from behind cover as the Sergeant Major waved to his men to keep down.
“We can talk, Corporal,” Jackie said as he recognized they were not alone. His words were met with silence save for the Sergeant Major calling everyone to him.
Jackie glanced at everyone else before turning his attention to Corporal Dale O’Malley. He was greeted with sightless eyes and a peaceful grin worn by the prettiest girl… the pretty girl he would never know again this side of heaven.
Whether it was a Divine moment or a minute in time protected by the belief of all his mates about Army comradery; everyone nodded in sad commonality as Jackie fell across Dale’s body and wept unashamedly…
Sarnia...
Just one look at you
My heart grew tipsy in me
You and you alone
Bring out the gypsy in me
“Mommy knew about her? About Dale?” Leia asked. The movie had ended and Jackie blinked back tears.
“You know? I did so love Dale. But your Mom? She understood. As if Dale had really been my high school sweetheart, you know?” Jackie choked up. Agnes was the second love of Jackie’s life but the finest, most gracious woman he would ever know.
“Tell me what Mommy said, Daddy?” Leia knew but she cherished the story; it went to the heart of the love her father and mother had shared.
“She..she…”Jackie choked up a little as he recalled Agnes’ last words only a year ago.
“She said that she understood. That she…” Leia grabbed her father’s left hand and rubbed his still-present wedding band.
“Yes, Daddy…”
“’You…’ she said...” He smiled, remembering Agnes.
“You will always be the light of my life, but…’’’
“This is the best story I will ever hear, Daddy. It’s okay,” Leia said as she smiled and kissed her father’s forehead in blessing.
“’But I know, Jackie, that everyone might have a first love. Dale was your first girlfriend…your first love.’ She actually waved at me.”
“’Please let me finish, my sweet love. I know Dale was a girl even if she never got to live as one.’” Jackie paused and looked heavenward and continued.
“She said that I gave Dale the life she never had."
“’Dale was your first love, Jackie. But I will always be the love of your life.’”
“Mommy was a real gem, Daddy…A real gem,” Leia said, anticipating her mother’s last words.
“’I’ll…I’ll be sure to pass along your love for Dale when…' your Mom said...” Jackie began to sob.
“When…I see her…” He collapsed in his daughter’s arms, but his tears were wondrous and healing.
“I’ll tell her you send your love, and I’ll give her a hug and a kiss from you,” Leia said; remembering her mother's last words; finishing the beautiful story.
“Dale was the emerald to Mommy’s diamond, wasn’t she Daddy.”
“Yes,” Jackie said with a smile.
“I suppose she was.”
I love all the many charms about you
Above all, I want my arms about you
Don't be a naughty baby
Come to mama, come to mama do
My sweet embraceable you
In grateful remembrance of the sacrifice made by the brave men and women on the Beaches and Countryside of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944
Embraceable You
Words and Music by
Phil Kelsall and George Gershwin
as sung by the incomparable
Miss Judy Garland
The Longest Day
Motion Picture
Daryl F. Zanuck/20th Century Fox
based on the Novel of the same name
by Cornelius Ryan
Comments
Thank you for that lovely story
My father in the 'Inns of Court Regiment' from 1942 to demob in 1946. His troop came ashore on D-Day along with the Canadians on Juno Beach. His vehicle got bogged down in sand and was abandoned for three days. He served on the front line or close to it until the end of the war where he witnessed the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. He never talked about his service but only today, I was looking at an album of his photos from D-Day+5 until VE Day when they were somewhere close to the Danish border. He was a Sergeant on D-Day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inns_of_Court_Regiment
He joined this regiment because he worked in the City of London, close to the 'Inns of Court' before he was called up.
Thank you again,
Samantha
I am truly privileged
to somehow provide a connection to your father's past, Thank you!
Love, Andrea Lena
“We can talk later”
We almost always think so. Sometimes, in war or peace, we’re wrong, and the important words are left unsaid. But in this case, I think, Dale and Jackie didn’t need to say the words for their communication— their communion— to be complete.
Thank you for the story. And for remembering.
Emma
How Do You Do This?
You wring so many tears from me in so few words. A forbidden love that would have had them both crucified after the war. What makes it even more poignant is that ineffable forties sound of Judy Garland's voice, the voice of an era.